Saturday, 3 June 2017

I like taking chances, or flying by the seat of my pants as
I call it. It does us good to fly without a safety net - it builds resilience
and self-reliance, it helps us to solve problems, because like so many things
in life there are no right or wrong answers, there are simply possibilities.
Sometimes though the hardest thing can be recognising when a chance comes
along, and being open to the possibility of choice and change, but I like to
think that I’ve used the chances I’ve been given in my life well, they’ve
certainly brought me much for which I’m grateful, and one in particular was to
prove to be a catalyst for so much that followed.

In 1996, when I was twenty seven, my life (that I had
hitherto thought well planned out) had reached something of an impasse. I had a
failed marriage behind me, and was working in a boarding school ostensibly to
lick my wounds, but at least it provided me with board and lodging, during term
time anyway. An avid reader practically since birth, I had recently signed up
as a volunteer with the RNIB to learn braille. Once qualified I would be able
to transcribe printed books into braille for customer requests, and this seemed
the perfect way to pass the long lonely evenings. To this day I cannot remember
what put this idea into my head, or the sequence of events that allowed it to
happen, but happen it did and I started my training.

About six months later, at the end of term, I was clearing
up a dormitory with a colleague after the boarders had left for the holidays
and came across a copy of The Guardian newspaper which a parent had left
behind. I was scooping up rubbish into dustbin sacks at the time, and the paper
was moments from being thrown away when the RNIB logo caught my eye. I
hesitated, glanced at the paper again and in that moment chance intervened in
my life. The logo was sitting at the top of an advert for a house manager at
their school for the blind in Worcester. At the time I didn’t even know where
that was, but I put the paper to one side and carried on clearing. It wasn’t
until later that night that I had the opportunity to look at the paper once
more.

The advert was a residential position for someone to manage
a boarding house, and to care for 18 or so totally blind or visually impaired
students in a home like setting, proving care and opportunities to learn life
skills. I had no experience or qualifications in working with children with
disabilities, but I was learning braille, and I wondered if this at least might
get me an interview. On a whim, I applied. It would mean moving halfway across
the country, to a place where I knew no-one, but chance was calling to me. So,
on one very snowy day after a hellish journey on foot, buses, trains and taxis I
arrived for an interview. The rest as they say is history…

I started work for the RNIB in January 1996 and one week
later I met another houseparent who had also moved to Worcester to take up a
position at the school only two months before I did. In February of this year
we celebrated twenty years of marriage with our three amazing children… The chances have continued; some I’ve taken
by myself and some we’ve taken together, but without exception they have
enriched our lives, often in ways we didn’t realise until afterwards. Of course
we never really know whether these pivotal moments in our lives are taking a
chance or simply the hand of fate at work, but be brave, and you can have a
wonderful time finding out!

Thank you so much Emma for sharing, what a wonderful job you got at the RNIB, all thanks to a chance.

Giveaway to Win signed copies of Letting in Light and Turn Towards the Sun (UK Only)

Emma Davies is very kindly giving my followers a chance to win signed copies of Letting in Light and Turn Toward the Sun. Giveaway open to UK only, all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 17/06/2017. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner. Good luck everyone.

After a varied career, Emma Davies once worked for a design studio where she was asked to provide a fun and humorous (and not necessarily true) anecdote for their website. She wrote the following: 'I am a bestselling novelist currently masquerading as a thirty something mother of three.' Well the job in the design studio didn't work out but she's now a forty something mother of three and is happy to report the rest of her dream came true.

After many years as a finance manager she now writes full time, and is far happier playing with words than numbers. She lives with her husband, three children, and two guinea pigs in rural Shropshire where she writes in all the gaps in between real life.